WELCOME TO MY WEBSITE!
I offer professional studio and session drumming services across a wide variety of musical genres.
All the latest news regarding announcements, upcoming releases, studio projects, or concerts can be found in this menu.
13rd February 2026
Progressive fusion with crushing metal guitar sound. NEW ALBUM IS COMING, featuring ex. Cynic / Dream Theater / Allan Holdsworth band members. We have launched the pre-order campaign. Official vinyl & digital RELEASE DATE: June 1st 2026
PRE-ORDER! Get your signed, hand-numbered copy with your name in the supporter credits on the inner sleeve/insert. For exclusive options and a special gift, follow the instructions here: https://oliverziskodrummer.com/call-for-supporters/
or PRE-ORDER on Bandcamp.
5th January 2026
After recording many metal albums, I decided to change the concept for my upcoming release. In 2025, I’m working on my fourth solo album, PLAN(e)T-BASED. The foundations of the songs were written earlier, between 2021 and 2023, and I’ve been developing them continuously over the past few years.
Musically, the concept differs from my previous album. While Global Warning was a mixture of electronic music genres—such as drum and bass—and modern fusion music elements, the new album moves toward progressive/fusion music, featuring a detuned 8-string thrash/death metal guitar sound.
The album features bassists Anthony Crawford (Allan Holdsworth band, Virgil Donati band), Péter Erdei, Roland Rácz, Péter Papesch, and Robin Zielhorst (ex-Cynic, Exivious; currently Obscura) & guitarist Márton Kertész (Special Providence, Sear Bliss, Rivers Ablaze), Marius Pop, and Attila Kovács (ex-Sear Bliss, Superbutt; currently Bong-Ra and The Answer Lies in the Black Void).
The album also includes a special guest appearance by Planet X’s Derek Sherinian on keyboards.
Expected release: late 2026.
18th January 2026
As the upcoming album is once again the result of a long creative process, I’ll be sharing a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes content both before and after its release — here and on my social media — so it’s worth checking back from time to time.
This will include details about the songwriting process, rhythmic foundations, influences (bands, drummers, and musicians) behind each composition, drum and video recordings, and acknowledgements of the contributing musicians — who played on which track and why I chose them for that particular song. I’ll also share insights into the mixing and mastering process, aspects of the video editing, the conceptual message of the album, as well as the artwork and booklet design.
I find it important to establish an honest tone for my solo albums. With this in mind, I aimed to choose song titles — including the album title — that are realistic rather than sonorous or artistic. Every song title has its own story, which I’ll detail in the booklet. I worked with earthly themes instead of fantasy creations. As with my previous albums, this release contains only instrumental pieces, without lyrics. Because of this, there are two ways I tell my stories: the atmosphere of the music and the booklet, just like on my earlier records.
6th February 2026
Production and Recording Details
If you would like to explore the project in greater depth (some more information about the production process):
10 drum playthrough videos were created, plus one band performance video featuring live playing by Anthony Crawford and Marius Pop. These videos will be released throughout the year. Some are only on FB, but after the album release, we’ll release a complete album drum-playthrough video on YouTube.
All music was written, mixed, and mastered by me. I also handled the drumming, keyboards and music programming, the video edits, cover artwork, and booklet concept. The drums were recorded in my home studio.
What was special about the drum recording mode was that all videos and audio were recorded at the same time. I recorded most of the songs in one take, and some of them in two takes. That was quite a challenge because of the complexity of the grooves. I practiced all songs separately for weeks before the final recording. I recorded only when I felt prepared to do it precisely in one take.
Amongst today’s increasingly appearing effect-driven AI-created compositions, I wanted to keep the natural, human identity. During the sessions, two cameras were running. The focus throughout was entirely on the performance, without staged movement or acting. As a result, the drum playthrough videos have a natural, lifelike feel. Realism is also an important aspect of the production: although I carried out minor micro-edits on the recordings, I deliberately chose an old-school approach in the mixing procedure, and I avoided grid alignment on the drums. I aimed to choose song titles — including the album title — that are realistic rather than sonorous or artistic. Every song title has its own. real, earthly story/message, which I detail in the booklet.
5th January 2026
Also, in 2025, a new progressive metal/grunge supergroup called Hopeländic was formed, in which I play alongside some outstanding Hungarian musicians. Further details can be found in the article on grungery.hu: https://grungery.hu/hopelandic-uj-grunge-prog-szupergrupp-jon-zselenszkyvel-a-mikrofonnal/ (the article’s language is Hungarian). At the end of 2025, we are working on the final song for our debut album. We aim to reach a worldwide audience, so the lyrics will be in English.
With Hopeländic, we’ll release our first videos in the spring of 2026, and our debut album is scheduled for the end of 2026.
7th February 2026
As I previously posted, we are kicking off this year with several exciting projects simultaneously. Earlier this week, we filmed the first video for our new prog-metal band
(h o p e l ä n d i c) at Gábor Fekete’s rehearsal room and studio complex in Siófok, which also served as a photo session. We had an incredibly professional location and crew at our disposal. Thanks to everyone involved!
Our official website is under construction, and we plan to launch on streaming platforms this spring with three songs and the music video.
The band members might be familiar from several groups: Jerichó, Wellington, Age of Nemesis, Goldwater, S.L.A.N.G, Rivers Ablaze, Mind’s Mirrors, Divided, Anima Sound System, Sear Bliss, Alfred’s Violin, Hetes Körzet, Eleven Hold, Lensky Mob, etc.
In the meantime, we are working on the full album and looking for a record label that would actively participate in our work.
In October 2025, I recorded the drums for the upcoming album of the Hungarian post-black metal band October Silence. This is another band/project of guitarist Márton Kertész (Rivers Ablaze, Sear Bliss, Special Providence). More details coming…
November 2025. We closed the 2025 concert season with Anima Sound System with a superb show at the A38 Ship in Budapest. We had dozens of great gigs again this year. Looking forward to the next season!
Some releases I was involved in in 2025:
Slovakian avant-garde BM band, Porenut’s new album. The first single of the upcoming album by American guitarist Brad Heck. Further songs coming…
Video feature on Drum Talk TV
Messing around with polyrhythms:
Drum tracking for Impetus of Dreams (Boston, USA)
My 3rd studio album, „Global Warning” was released in 2022, featuring numerous great musicians: Derek Sherinian-keyboards (ex. Dream Theater, KISS, Alice Cooper, Black Country Communion, Whitesnake, etc.), Anthony Crawford – bass guitar (Witherfall, Chon, Justin Timberlake, Erykah Badu, Virgil Donati band, etc.), Marius Pop – guitar, Mike Gotthard – guitar, Zsolt Kaltenecker – keyboards (Special Providence), two members of Anima Sound System (Szabolcs Prieger & Tibba Kovats) and further great bass guitar players: Peter Erdei, Peter Papesch, Martin Gudics.
Contains 12 songs and 2 bonus tracks. Running time: 73 mins.
Check out the YouTube playlist of the album
You can read some articles and interviews regarding the album under the INTERVIEWS/ARTICLES menu.